S2 Ep1: F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers Episodes 1-9

TW/CW for sexual assault, intimate relationship violence and bullying Spoiler alert: This episode contains spoilers for F4 Thailand, the 2010 Boys Over Flowers, the 2005 Hana Yori Dango and the 2001 Meteor Garden. A year after we recorded our Boys Over Flowers episode, we’re back with a deep dive on F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers, the latest addition to the Hana Yori Dango universe. Even though Melanie, Katherine and Vickey had sworn never to watch another adaptation, Alisa knew from the first episode that F4 Thailand was something special and she managed to pull everyone back in. In today’s episode we’re joined by our good friend RK (known as @roh_tweets on Twitter).  1:56: Background on the Hana Yori Dango universe and the special relationship our podcast has with this franchise: our Boys Over Flowers episode accounts for more than half the total listens on our podcast (which is nuts). 7:31: Episode discussion begins. We all agree this production is top notch and a big surprise given the quality of Boys Over Flowers and other adaptations. 18:40: Melanie and Vickey discuss key changes to the original story made by F4 Thailand, such as the male lead being drugged and photographed instead of the female lead. Alisa points out that it’s a different type of story because of how the production is coloring in the lines of the plot.  25:16: Mel says that one of her favorite aspects of watching the show is the fan interactions and dissections of the storytelling that happen after every episode. It’s on another level because of how rich F4 Thailand’s storytelling is  (Alisa agrees). 26:42: We dive into the meaning of the honey badger stuffed animal from episode 6 and why it’s not only hugely important thematically, it’s an example of the symbolism that’s threaded throughout the narrative. 29:38: RK points out that many if not most of the viewers are bringing knowledge of previous adaptations to their viewing of F4 Thailand and that a lot of the reward of watching is in comparing and contrasting with previous versions. It not just what this drama is doing, it’s what it’s doing compared with the other versions that exist.  34:30: Melanie and Alisa discuss the costuming and how it supports storytelling (Thyme’s half animal print Prada shirts and Kavin’s teddy bear sweater) 36:19: We dive into a long discussion of Thyme, Gorya and the other characters and how they are different (in some cases very different!) from previous iterations. We agree that all of the characters are far more complex than in other versions.  1:03:43: Vickey says that she doesn’t have second lead syndrome for Ren in this version even though he’s likable because the writing makes it clear that Gorya and Thyme are the correct couple (the rest of us agree).   1:13:29: Discussion of Lita and how similar she is to Gorya and what the story is trying to do with those parallels. 1:15:59: We talk about sex! As it how it exists in the manga vs. F4 Thailand and whether or not there is any sexual energy/desire between Thyme and Gorya (Alisa spends a lot of time hyperventilating over the episode 5 storage room scene)  1:22:57: We dive into the incredible storytelling of episode 9, especially the funeral scene and how Lita falls in love with a Thyme that exists because of the influence of Gorya. (the star bandaid!) 1:28:47: Alisa points out that the social critique is foregrounded in this version much more than previous versions (the 1% reference in the episode 9 title comes from Occupy Wall Street). RK points out that class struggle is part of the entire franchise but is much more explicit in this version. We also briefly discuss how awful the Thai king is in real life (google if you want your jaw to drop) and a political critique in a scene with Gorya’s parents.  1:32:21: We discuss episode 7 and That Scene where Thyme explodes. That was a hugely polarizing scene that generated an enormous social media backlash. We discuss how shocked we were by watching the scene (including those of us who were warned about the scene in advance), the ethics of including the scene, why the director chose to write the scene that way and how upset we were by some of the online conversations generated by the scene (it was a rough week, y’all). 2:01:50: We discuss why Gorya chooses Thyme and the fact she clearly makes a choice as compared with other versions. We also discuss why she breaks it off with him at the end of episode 9 (battling someone vs. navigating the 1% world). 2:03:02: We speculate on what’s coming in future episodes. 2:09:55: We praise the director for respecting the audience of young women enough to make a truly good version of this story. We also acknowledge how much time the director invested in prepping the actors. 2:19:57: Our final thoughts on the production.